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Taken 2 doesn't hold up to its predecessor: While Liam Neeson is as impressive as usual in this kidnapping thriller, the plot is totally absurd. What critics are saying:

"There’s no need to wait for the MAD magazine parody of Taken 2. It’s already hilariously up there on the screen," writes Peter Howell in the Toronto Star. "The first thing to be kidnapped is logic" in "a ludicrous script that spent more time on a photocopier than in a word processor."

It's "a sequel every bit as clumsy, ham-handed, outlandish and laughable as the original was sleek, tough and efficient," writes Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post. Neeson's character has "become little more than a know-it-all who dispatches every obstacle as if he’d anticipated it all along. There’s no crafty fun to be had watching him figuring it all out."

It just feels "so wrong," writes Stephanie Zacharek at NPR. When it comes to bad guys, for instance, "you can tell they're bad because they have scrubby beards and scowling expressions; you can tell they're Albanian because they're wearing pleated pants and oversized leather jackets from the Who's the Boss? era."

But Charles Gant feels differently, calling the film "enjoyably ludicrous" in Variety. "Plenty of the dialogue... falls into the so-bad-it's-good category, and audience derision is presumably all part of the envisaged fun."

I thought the movie was good, even very good but not great. The critics obviously havent really thought the situation through, but it was obvious to me that Brian Mills had worked the problem through before in his mind, and he has come prepared to deal with the problems. He listened carefully to the sounds of the city after he was captured, kept the timing of the turns in his head, and when he later escapes, he uses this information to retrace his steps to the kidnappers hideouts. He is one step ahead of his kidnappers because he actually thought about the what and the when and wasnt operating from a position of ignorance, unlike the movie reviewers. I liked the movie, and will see it again when it comes out on blu-ray; if I have one complaint in the movie, its the transformation that Kim makes from a timid driver who fails her driving test (twice) in an Escalade but drives better than Jason Bourne when on the streets of Istanbul, driving a Mercedes taxi (with a stick/clutch).

Spudsy

Oct 5, 2012 8:06 PM CDT

Attention critics, you better change these negative reviews. I don't have any critiquing skills, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.

reallypeople

Oct 5, 2012 4:52 PM CDT

I never listen to critics. I make up my own mind. Still wondering how people get paid for doing this. Most useless job in the world.